Show Suicide bomber kills 22 AU Ali I Laura King Los Angeles Times A suicide bomber blew himself up Tuesday in a I hotel restaurant popular with Afghans killing at t. t least 22 people and I injuring scores of others in what might be a sign of I the Afghan conflict spilling over into Pakistan's cities The explosion in Peshawar a provincial capital close to the lawless tribal areas that straddle the Pakistan Afghan-Pakistan frontier came one day after a US U.S. soldier was killed in in an ambush on oa the Pakistani side of the border a rare Western combat casualty inside Pakistan A Pakistani soldier soldier also also was killed Authorities said they were investigating whether Tuesdays Tuesday's suicide bombing was linked to a neighboring country An Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said it was too early to say if the attack was tied to the weekend death of Mullah the top operational commander for the Coalition forces announced they had killed in Afghanistan's southern Province after he left an unspecified sanctuary widely presumed to be inside Pakistan The Associated Press cited security officials Bomber Continued on page 3 I I Bomber kills 22 Continued from page 1 I as saying a relative of had been arrested at the bombed restaurant days earlier and that a note taped to one of the bombers bomber's severed legs contained a warning to spies for the Americans There was no immediate claim of responsibility forthe for forthe forthe the attack in Peshawar a backdrop of continuing political upheaval in Pakistan over President Pervez efforts to dismiss the country's chief justice Calm largely was restored in Karachi the country's largest city and its financial capital where pro- pro and antigovernment antigovernment antigovernment anti- anti government forces fought gun battles in the streets over the weekend that left about 40 people dead The political opposition called a general strike Monday in iri protest which disrupted commercial activity in Karachi and other cities At a hearing Tuesday before the Pakistan's Supreme Court a lawyer for Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry said his client had been pressured to resign Chaudhry is seen as a potential obstacle to plan to extend his presidential rule in elections this fall without giving up his rank of army general The confrontation which has galvanized Pakistan's splintered political opposition is considered the most serious challenge to authority since he seized power in 1999 A planned parliamentary debate on the violence in Karachi had to be postponed when lien opposition politicians walked out in protest The bombing in Peshawar deepened fears that Pakistan will be drawn further into the war in Afghanistan between NATO-led NATO forces and Islamic militants Afghanistan 1 and nd Pakistan are allied with the United States in n the fight against the and other insurgent groups However the two South Asian nations have accused one another of failing to adequately police their respective sides of the J mile 1500 frontier Afghan President Hamid has said Pakistan's government provides safe haven to figures which Pakistan denies also has come under pressure from the Bush administration to do more to rein in militants who use the tribal areas as asa asa asa a staging ground for attacks inside Afghanistan The Peshawar suicide bombing which took place at the height of the lunch- lunch hour rush left a scene of carnage in the hotel restaurant just opposite a landmark mosque Some bodies were too charred and mutilated to be identified Waheed Ullah a waiter said he was serving customers outdoors when the bomb went off otT I I d back into the restaurant and saw bodies there there he said Among those killed was the restaurants restaurant's owner Salah Uddin an Afghan national with reported ties tiesto tiesto tiesto to Abdul Rashid a longtime foe and former warlord now with the Afghan military Peshawar and its environs have been the scene of several serious bombings in recent months some of them thought to be the work of domestic Pakistani militant groups On April 28 a blast targeting Interior Minister Aftab Khan killed 32 people in a town outside Peshawar escaped with minor injuries In Afghanistan a presidential spokesman expressed concern over fighting earlier this week between Afghan and Pakistani troops which killed 13 people over two days The spokesman Mohammed Karim said Afghanistan had sent senta a letter of protest to the United Nations The rising tensions b between tween Afghanistan and Pakistan pose a quandary for as he seeks to stave off increasing pressure from the country's judicial establishment over the Chaudhry case Tighter policing of the tribal areas is deeply unpopular among many of supporters At the court hearing in Islamabad the presiding judge referred to the shooting death on Monday of a Supreme Court official Syed Hamid Raza at athis athis athis his home Police blamed thieves but relatives said they believed he was vas was targeted because of his status as a potential witness in Chaudhry's legal fight for reinstatement Each one of us was as shocked and grieved as' as as anyone could be said the judge Khalil Rehman Weare We Ve Weare are watching This court is watching The killing remains under investigation |